Farewells.

Chris phoning family, happy to be leaving.

Andrew very happy, night before we leave

July 6^th 2012 and its both of our last days at work.  Excitement at 2pm when we know no work for a while and as we are both unhappy in our jobs at the moment it seems like its been a long time coming.  A bit disappointing for Andrew as he has been with his employer for over 15 years and there was no farewell function, not even a few beers put on.  With over 30 employees, you would think someone would have put on some sort of drinks, but no.  Christie is a bit different as she is only taking leave at the moment so not to perturbed that there was no proper goodbye at work.  We wonder about how people think these days……..

2pm and out of there finally.  Christie decided to have a small celebration for both of us so arranged tickets to see the movie “Ted” at Gold Class, a nice evening in comfy recliner seats, food and drinks brought in at specific times throughout the movie, was very relaxing and nice being spoilt.  Movie was funny although a bit crude.

Saturday 7^th July 2012, we had originally decided that this would be the day we started our trip north, but with a fair bit still to do we do have the time to putter about the Marina a few more days and sort other things out. Headed up to Mooloolaba to drop in to see Gay, Michelle and Pete and to let them know that we planned on being up there in the boat some time before the weekend – Weather permitting.

Chris cooking up a storm or two

  So 5 loads of washing was done, the boat was tidied, vacuumed and cleaned, a big food shop was done and then Christie made up a variety of meals to freeze including beef stroganoff, lemon chicken, cottage pie, chilli con carne, beef curry, chicken curry and a mixture of other meals. 

Our safety gear.

The boat is seeming a bit heavy sided but we think should be OK, well we hope so.  We have organised our safety equipment and placed it in easy reach – “ Just In Case” –  We have an EPIRB, life jackets, and grab bag packed with flares, whistle, water, mirror, torch, V sheet, flint, and suncream, hoping we don’t have to use it but as they say “ Better safe than sorry”.

We then pick up the sea calf from Alicia and Stephens, and drop the  trailer and 4wd back at Steve's place.  We still have furniture and vehicles stored in a 100km radius of peoples places, so seem to be driving from one end of the country side to the other.

 Friends Joel, Kerry and their kids came over for a look at boat the evening before we head off and out for fish and chips at Morgans seafood and a nice evening out for all.  We are excited.

Final touches.

No carpet

New carpet out the back.

Finished carpet inside.

 Now head down and arse up and saving like crazy on getting the rest of the inside of boat completed including  carpets pulled up. Cold feet for a couple of weeks on the bare fibre glass but once it was laid again it makes the boat seem so much more like a home and warmer.  Unfortunatley due to bad weather, work and other commitments we have not been able to have Mingo out again.

Our now "sold" Suzuki bikes.

We have managed to sell Christies little Suzuki swift car for a good price and her Suzuki dirt bike and the catamaran all within a number of days of each other and a few weeks later finally managed to sell Andrews Suzuki bike too.

We spent a lovely day up in Mooloolaba with Andrews mum Gay and sister Michelle for Gays birthday had a nice lunch on the esplanade then back to Gays for a coffee, before heading home we popped into see Pete before back to Brisbane. What a lovely day, with beautiful blue skies and nice temperature weather.  Unfortunalty on the way home it started to pour down and we didn’t get home till 6pm.  There were no carspaces left in the marina secure parking so we decided to leave the 4wd and Andrews work vehicle in the the insecure park, and as there are cctv cameras we weren’t worried.

Damage to Ute door handle

Grub, having broken window in 4WD

Get up after a sleep in on the Sunday and heading out for a nice breakfast in Redcliffe, walk up to the 4wd only to see the back window smashed in and everything in the car taken – all of Andrews hand tools, 4wd items, jerry cans, cut wires to the CB radio and other items in the vehicle.  Did the usual call around to police and then sat in the marina office and watched on cctv footage a dark figure of a person breaking into the car.  What use!!!!! We then decide to get into Andrews work Ute to head out only to realise that they had also tampered with both locks and the doors were totally inoperable.  They did not get in but neither could we.  Very odd that the only cars in the marina damaged were our 2 out of 10 other vehicles!!!

Two adorable little men.

A quick trip to Melbourne in beginning of June to say hi to Christies sister Ashli, her partner Lisa, their 2 sons Flynn and Ollie and a third on the way.  A nice weekend away and first time in a proper double bed since March (seemed like luxury).  Was lovely seeing all and always an empty feeling saying bye again.

Only a month to go now and these days at work seem to be getting longer and are dragging more.  We seem busy organising things still and moving  vehicles here there and everywhere.  A big thank you this time to Alicia and Stephen for so kindly storing Andrews motorbike and trailer and then our tinnies and trailer.  We would have been so stuck without the generosity of all of our friends help with all our vehicles storage.

Off to Steve's place one Saturday night to drop off the tradesman trailer and also enjoy Paul’s 40^th birthday.  Large bonfire on a cool night, great company and lovely food –we are going to miss all our friends.

Andrew, Brooke and Grace.

Spent our last Sunday in Brisbane with Andrews daughter Brooke and her friend Grace.  We decided to take them down to Mt Tamborine tree climb adventure. Four chatty people in the car on the way down and full of excitement.  A great day was had by all, swinging the ropes, walking the tight ropes, having fun on the flying fox and other fun tree adventures.  Head back towards Brisbane and stop at the famous Yatala Pie shop for a bite to eat, then back in the car and The girls both asleep in minutes.  Took the girls to have a look at the boat, think they were a bit shocked at how small a space we were living in, but they seemed abit awe struck at the work that we had done on the boat since Brooke last saw it.  We then headed back to drop Brooke and Grace off at Graces’s for the night and a sad good bye for Andrew to Brooke, as not sure how long till we are either back in Brisbane or she comes to visit us up north.  Hopefully Brooke will be up to the warmer weather soon.

Time to give this V8 a run for its money now.

Motoring out of the marina to
a beautiful sunset 

Heading out to Tangalooma

Finally we are able to motor out again, due to us having a lunch to go in the morning we don’t manage to get out until 1630, just in time to head over to Tangalooma before night fall, so out we go, both big smiles on our faces and feeling that wind in our faces again whilst sitting up in the fly bridge  while driving the boat was a nice change.  We worked out its been 7 months that we have been out in the boat properly.  We head over to Moreton Island, calm weather and a beautiful evening motoring along watching the sun setting.

 Its getting darker now and we are still about 20 Min's motoring away from Moreton, we are crossing through the shipping channel, 24 meters deep and just gone dark, and low and behold the bloody alarm in the boat goes off, telling us something major is wrong with the motor again.  How can this be.... We look at each other in disbelief and wondering what we are going to do.  Andrew tries to start the motor again, but no luck as Christie has the cover up and is watching to see if there is anything looking a bit odd in the motor.  Only to realise that the gear oil is totally empty.  Maybe its not so bad after all.... So we fill it up and about 35 minutes later with a little relief motor into Moreton, manage to anchor around the back of the wreck and settle down for the night with a well deserved wine and beer to settle the nerves. 

Well what a first night out after 7 months, so much for the weather forecast being calm. The wind picked up during the night and with the wind blowing one way and the tides going the other, we were rocking like you wouldn’t believed.  Items were being flung across the benches,  the door to the bathroom cabinet banging and the wind howling outside.  So we lay there from 2am until it got light at 6am and decided to head back through the white tips over to some calmer water along the Bribie passage.  Christie turns to Andrews when we get there and says, yeah this is the calm kinda boating I like.  

Old trusty "Sea Calf"

So after an interesting night and morning again and having explored the Bribie canals in the tinny - or as we call her "sea calf". We love just motoring around having a sticky beak into other peoples boats and seeing some of these million dollar canal houses.  We then decide to head back to the Marina.  Andrew has a look at the back of the boat in the marina to see oil slowly leaking into the water, oh no whats wrong now.

Monday morning and yeap it was once again a hard task getting up to go to work at 4.30am, ooh not long know and we wont have to be doing this work stuff for a few months, yeap we are counting the days.

Andrew gives the mechanic a call to see what the problem is only to be told that Mingo again will have to come out of the water  for the leg to be looked at as it seems as though a seal may have moved.  More expensive.

Pete driving Mingo.

After only having to be out of the water for a day this time and yeap a leak in the leg, but fixed with no problems and we are back in the water again for a spin with Andrews dad Pete.  A bit of a thrill for Pete compared to his old 3 meter tinny back in the 90’s. 

What else can break?

This was hard living -  in a constant mess and no lights at night.

During those few weeks of work on the motor we have been on the hard stand, with no light or water, so went out and bought a little desk lamp to cook and read and basically live by.  Very hard putting your make up on and getting ready for work in the morning when you are getting up at 4.30am in the dark and you have no light.  This was a trying time for us both...... 

From this...

During these few weeks, we have also had an over hall of the inside of the boat, with new led lights in the kitchen area, out the back, in the bedroom and bathroom.  Andrew has pulled out the single sofa and built an extra bench top to extend the kitchen and fitted a little 12 volt bar fridge and some shelving.  Out the back he has also built bench space for a BBQ and extra single burner gas stove.  What a difference this has made to the kitchen and space wise.  

Start of extra bench & shelving

There have been issues with the boat batteries – failing because the solar not charging them, the TV ariel not working, so very speckled TV shows, water pump failing and bursting the pipes  -just what you want when you are living on a boat.  Isn’t the water supposed to be outside not in?  A very interesting night that was. 

 Well with the boat 24 years old, I guess it had to happen at some stage and the positiveness that comes out of all this is thank goodness it has all happened now why we are still working and in the marina than on our trip up north. We have replaced just about everything now and have spent a fortune. We seem to have more money going out than coming in.  So much for us leaving on this trip in July with a bank load of savings. 

To this, more bench space, lights, shelving.

Looking good.

Before all the motor problems, we had ordered and had made an extension of the roof line at the back by building a stainless steel frame and canopy giving us another 1.6m out the back. This also included a mozzie net and wow what a great difference it makes, will be brilliant having the extra undercover length for protection especially with the hot sun and rain.

Our extra 1.6 meters of cover 

 As I am sitting here writing  on this May day, it is a beautiful outside, we are in Scarborough Marina and now counting the days down till we go only 2 months now, so not much longer.

Living back on land in an unexpected way.

Mingo coming out of water on sling

 We have now been living on Mingo for two weeks when we decide it’s time to pull our fingers out and get the motor fixed and at the same time we will do some minor other outside maintenance whilst the boat is out of the water.  After talking to a few people around the marina most have said that our motor problems are probably just a slight overheating and the motor just needs a good service and oil change.  So we organise with the marina to pull us out of the water to what we expected to be 3 days.  

 Merc Motor before its service.

Preferring to use local mechanics we ask the marina staff who to use to service a Merc cruiser 502 Magnum 8.2 Litre motor.  We are then given the name and number of “Bob The so called mechanic”.   Bob is the beginning of our Disaster number Three. 

Andrew cleaning the hull.

First day on the dry stand and We and friend Steve start sanding the hull of the boat and cleaning it back to then spend the day in full overalls and masks antifouling.  Three coats later and the bottom of Mingo looks like new, shame about the rest of her.

Christie applying antifoam

Us antifouling the hull



Bob then turns up, does a few tests on the motor and tells us that it needs to come out.   

The motor pulled out to be replaced!!

We ask Mr. Mechanic for a quote, actually in a week we asked him at least 6 times for quotes only to be told no quote could be given until the work was done.  We started already to feel a little uneasy with this guy, something wasn’t jellying right.   Bob now had the motor in pieces on his workshop floor and the next phone call he tells us that the motor is broken beyond repair and that it will cost $28,000 to get a new one.  Yeah right!! No way.  We get Peter (Andrews’s dad) to tirelessly phone around and Google for us Merc Cruiser motors.  What a relief when Peter came back to us saying that he had found a motor for $8000, still way over our budgeted expenses for the boat, but what do we do.

Our dry stand home.....

So we now start our 3.5 weeks on the dry stand, what an experience having to climb up and down an 8 foot step ladder to get in and out and even more so in the middle of the night when you are half asleep and busting to go to the toilet and its raining.

  Andrew heads back to me mechanic  to find out what the hell is going on only to see that the leg was also in pieces and we are handed a bill of $2500. We didn’t even ask him to fix the leg, so were not at all happy.  He then takes us into his office to pull out his  notes that he had written re the motor and leg to find them all filed away in screwed up balls in the rubbish bin, and this is what you call customer service.

We get out of there with the old motor as fast as we can and head to merc service dealers in Coorparoo.  A week and half later for them sorting through our motor parts and back and forth finding pieces that Bob had decided not to return we finally get the motor back in the boat with one part still missing 7 weeks later but at least we are in the water even though not moving.

380 sqm house to 29 sqm boat

Moving into Mingo - What a mess!

Our first week on our boat "Mingo" started mid March 2012 moored at Scarborough Marina , we were ready for a new lifestyle of relaxing times. Our thoughts were how great it will be to have no house maintenance, no mowing of lawns, no weeding, no cleaning the pool or housework, aaahh bliss – weren’t we to be mistaken.....

The first long weekend we have off from work, Andrew is a project Manager for a plumbing company and Christie is a public servant with the Qld Police, both of us loving our free time and making the most of every minute we are not at work.

Andrews stinger bites and cut finger

  We decide to head out to Tangalooma for the weekend.  So boat packed and we are rearing to go.  2.5km out to sea and smoke starts billowing from the engine. Oh shit, what’s happened?   We anchor up in the bay with about 15 knot winds and realise we are not going anywhere.  Andrew is determined to get the engine going again, so jumps into the sea with goggle and snorkel and all Christie sees is his fingers gripping onto the duck board to keep himself afloat whilst trying to figure out what’s happened. An hour later and still No luck, but he’s not going to give up, next thing Christie sees  Andrew jumping out of the water with large red welts across his shoulders from being stung at least 4 times from stingers – well that was the end of trying to figure out what was wrong.  As he is then cutting a piece of hose to try another tactic, he cuts the top of his finger off.   We now have blood everywhere, he’s in agony with the stingers welts and we are stuck 2.5km from the marina. Oh and we are not members of the Coast Guard yet!!

Steve to the Rescue...

 We get on to the phone to Steve from Capalaba who offers to come out and tow us with his 5 meter boat, of course Andrew never mentioned that we were only 2.5km out of the marina and that the winds had now lifted up to about 20-25 knots.  We sit patiently waiting the 2.5 hours it takes Steve to get to us.  What a relief when we see Steve and Paul motoring towards us in his 17 foot boat.  A big thanks Steve and Paul for giving up your Saturday to come and rescue us and tow us back to the marina, oh Jesus, how do we know manoeuvre our 9m boat into our little marina pen with no steering.  Outcome the poles and broom sticks, Andrew on one side and Christie on the other, praying that we don’t hit the million dollar boats that are marined around us.  Yeap we did it, with applause from the bystanders in marina.  Disaster Two.

House Sold now the adventure begins

Sold House - Time to Celebrate

Andrew and Christie's Adventure begins - 

We started out by selling our home of 380 square meters on half an acre block on March 15^th 2012 for an adventure of a life time.  The adventure of a gypsy lifestyle by boat, air, car and foot.

An adventure like we never expected it would be started from day one.

Our house

We packed the house up and sold the majority of our belongings on eBay, only to find out one afternoon after coming home from work with only one week left in the house that we had been broken into.  Christie walking into the bedroom to find the safe had been smashed and all our eBay furniture money and sentimental, expensive jewellery stolen, we walk around the part empty house to find that our packed bags that we had in the garage ready to be taken to the boat had also been taken.   Disaster one.

"The Dodge Trailer"

So now we have the items we didn’t sell  because why sell the fun stuff - including a 14 foot catamaran, a tradesman trailer, so laden with tools that it looks like we are about to rob a bank, two dirt bikes, a trailer, a tinny on a trailer.  What to do with them.  With thanks to Joel and Kerry who really have done us such a favour by letting us scatter their garden with our junk (good quality junk of course) until, we can find alternative arrangements.  So in Morayfield we have these items.  In a 2.5m x 2.5m storage unit we have the rest of our life.  How Andrew managed going from a 6m x 6m shed and garage at the house full of his beloved tools and room to tinker and Christie going from a walk in robe, house full of photos, nick knacks and a large kitchen to cook and bake in.  What were we getting ourselves into?  How do we decide what we will need in our new 9m house on water?  Yes we have moved to a 30 foot fly bridge cruiser.

Mingo

Our friends and family have all commented on how will you guys survive together in such small living quarters. Well I guess we will find out, and show you all how it is done, for the better.